This is a Featured Guest post by Zoe Clark. Zoe is a proud mom of one baby girl and one miniature schnauzer. When not obsessing about designing perfect homes, Zoe is spending time with her family. At the end of the article, I’ll show you where you can connect with Zoe online!
Secondhand Smoke Can Cause Cancer in Pets
We all know that smoking is bad for our health, but what may surprise many pet owners are hazardous effects that smoke can have on their four-legged friends.
Most pet owners are unaware of smoke damage
Young cigarette smokers believe that they need not worry about feeling guilty about smoking in the house. They figure it is okay to smoke with no children inside. While this is true enough, if you have pets, you are still causing damage to them due to secondhand smoke.
Smoke affects the pets badly
Most people who have pets such as cats, dogs or birds, really care about them and could spend a fortune pampering and spoiling them. They probably set aside a lot of money for occasional vet bills to keep the pets healthy. The sad thing is that if the owner smokes cigarettes and the smoke gets near the pet in the house, it may be slowly killing the pet or at least affect its health, similarly to a child or other household member.
Secondhand smoke leads to a lot of problems
Many cats and small dogs are very prone to allergies. Although the pets are not allergic to smoke much at first, they can develop a sensitivity to cigarette smoke in the course of time. They might start coughing and wheezing after being exposed to smoke for a long time. Imagine a bird trapped in a cage inside a house where the owner constantly blows the smoke everywhere. It can be really stifling to even draw a clean breath.
Serious problems caused by secondhand smoke
Pets exposed to the secondhand smoke can have respiratory complications, eye diseases, cancer and other health problems. Pets often lick objects such as carpets or couches and these are full of thousands of chemicals that make up tobacco smoke, thus they are consuming the cancer-causing substances directly and then scattering them throughout their body. It is important to remember that this harmful smoke has a composition of 50 cancer-causing chemicals.
Notice the signs
Many vets believe that the symptoms in their patients with respiratory diseases, such as asthma or bronchitis, worsen if the owner is a smoker. If a pet is really bothered by cigarette smoke, the owner should definitely notice its dry cough that lasts throughout the year. If that’s not the case, it is surely noticeable that the pet has become noisier and often makes a mess in the house. This is a sign that the pet is seriously troubled by cigarette smoke.
Protect the pet
After becoming aware of these findings, many owners say that they would smoke outside or try to be considerate of their pets, but, unfortunately, statistics suggest otherwise. Basically, owners should make an effort so that if they cannot or do not want to quit smoking, they can at least try not to light a cigarette in the room where the pet stays, to ventilate the place often and not to leave full ashtray at the reach of a curious pet. Never smoke when you have your pet with you in your motor vehicle as that is even worse.
When the pet’s immune system is healthy and strong, a small amount of smoke can’t cause it any disturbance. But otherwise, pets could be in a danger. Anyone who has a pet knows that the proper selection of quality food is very important for their health and longevity, especially for those pets living in an unhealthy environment. There are many special diets with high fat and protein levels, that vets usually recommend for sick animals and animals that need to improve their immune system, with Hills Science Prescription diet being one of the best options.
Tobacco smoke is more harmful to children and pets than to non-smoking adults. Children and pets move closer to the floor (due to their height) and, in addition, they breathe faster than adults, so they breathe in a lot more carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in their lungs. Try to always keep in mind that by smoking you violate not only your own health, but also the health of people around you, health of small children, and health of your pets.
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